Delete a message

Zulip lets you delete the content of your messages or delete messages completely if these actions are allowed in your organization. Only server administrators can restore deleted messages.

Organization administrators can configure who can edit and delete messages, and set time limits for these actions. Administrators can delete other users' messages completely, but cannot edit a message to delete its content.

Delete message content

Editing a message to delete its content will cause the message to be displayed as (deleted). The original sender and timestamp of the message will still be displayed, and the original content of the message is still accessible via Zulip's edit history feature. This can be the best option for avoiding confusion if other users have already responded to your message.

  1. Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.

  2. Click the pencil () icon. If you do not see the pencil () icon, you do not have permission to delete the content of this message.

  3. Delete the content of the message.

  4. Click Save.

  1. Press and hold a message until the long-press menu appears.

  2. Tap Delete message to delete the content of the message. If you do not see the Delete message option, you do not have permission to delete the content of this message.

Delete a message completely

In some cases, such as when a message accidentally shares secret information, or contains spam or abuse, it makes sense to delete a message completely. Deleted messages will immediately disappear from the UI in all official Zulip clients.

Any uploaded files referenced only by deleted messages will be immediately inaccessible. Note that an uploaded file shared in multiple messages will be deleted only when all of those messages are deleted.

It's important to understand that anyone who received the message before you deleted it could have made a copy of its content. Even if no one is online when you send the message, users may have received the message via email or mobile notifications. So if you accidentally shared secret information that you can change, like a password, you may want to change that password regardless of whether you also delete the message.

  1. Hover over a message to reveal three icons on the right.

  2. Click on the ellipsis ().

  3. Select Delete message. If you do not see the Delete message option, you do not have permission to delete this message completely.

  4. Approve by clicking Confirm.

You can delete messages sent by bots that you own just like messages you sent yourself.

Restoring deleted messages

For protection against accidental or immediately regretted deletions, messages deleted directly or via a message retention policy are archived for 30 days in a format that can be restored by a server administrator. After that time, they are permanently and irrecoverably deleted from the Zulip server. Server administrators can adjust the archival time using the ARCHIVED_DATA_VACUUMING_DELAY_DAYS setting.

Message notifications

If you delete a message soon after sending it, any pending email notifications for that message will be canceled, and visual desktop notifications will be removed, including mentions and alerts.